jerome Taylor celebrating is only Test century against New Zealand
With the West Indies faltering badly in their first innings to eventually fall to England in the second Test of the #raisethebat Series, I thought it interesting to look back at a game where the West Indies used their first innings to ensure a game that could have gotten away from them, didn’t.
It turns out that maybe the game would not have had a result anyway, but the West Indies weren’t to know that and their performance to pull themselves out of trouble, was memorable.
In December of 2008, a powerful New Zealand Test side could find no way past a game West Indies and interestingly, the tone for the fight the visitors would put up came from the bat of Jamaican pace bowler Jerome Taylor.
It was the first Test of a two-match series and the West Indies had long been missing the names of the cricketers that made them great.
Though those names, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Malcolm Marshall, were no longer around, the proud legacy they left behind meant even this ‘watered-down’ version of the West Indies would not be pushovers.
The West Indies were sent into the field first up and despite three wickets apiece from Daren Powell (3-68), Fidel Edwards (3-91) and skipper Chris Gayle (3-42), things were off to a rocky start.
New Zealand would put 365 on the board on the first day, thanks to 95 from Daniel Flynn and 89 from Jesse Ryder.
No play was possible on day two of the Test and when the West Indies went to bat, the conditions for batting had changed.
Still Gayle was at his aggressive best, slamming 74 from 103 deliveries to get the run chase off to a rollicking good start. However, Sewnarine Chattergoon (13), Ramnaresh Sarwan (8), and Xavier Marshall (20), did not stay very long.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul, however, would bat with, of all people, pacer Jerome Taylor, to give West Indies a chance at staying in the game.
Before Taylor came to the crease, Chanderpaul, who would eventually make 76 from 200 deliveries, lost the services of Brendan Nash for 23 and Denesh Ramdin for five.
Now he was batting with the tail, the score was 173-6. Even with a day rained out, this game could have been over in a jiffy.
But Taylor wasn’t in the mood to give up the ghost and scored an almost run-a-ball century, slamming 17 fours and three massive sixes, to end on 106 from 107.
Nobody else scored a run and so the West Indies crept, or rather, blasted their way to 340, a deficit of just 25.
Rain made sure there was no play on the fourth day and much of the fifth day, with New Zealand, 44-2 in their second innings before the game came to an end.
But Taylor’s batting made sure there was little chance of New Zealand running away with the game and provides an example of some of the heroics current West Indies coach, Phil Simmons, will be hoping to see with today’s batsmen when the team meets England in the decider of the #raisethebat Series.
Paul-Andre is the Managing Editor at SportsMax.tv. He comes to the role with almost 20 years of experience as journalist. That experience includes all facets of media. He began as a sports Journalist in 2001, quickly moving into radio, where he was an editor before becoming a news editor and then an entertainment editor with one of the biggest media houses in the Caribbean.
'Quality' Hope still Windies best batsman' - WI legend Dujon backs player to figure things out after dismal run of form
West Indies legendary wicketkeeper, Jeffrey Dujon, is convinced that out-of-favour Shai Hope remains the team’s best batsman, despite recently running into a rough patch of form.
The 27-years-old Hope was dropped from the team last year ahead of the West Indies tour of New Zealand. The decision followed several months of off-colour form, which saw the player return scores of 16, 9, 25, 7, 17, and 31 during the team’s three-Test tour of England in July. Overall, in Test cricket, Hope averaged 19.48 since December 2017 and just 14.45 since February 2019.
The decision to drop the player, however, still stirred vigorous debate around the region, with many arguing that he should have been allowed to play his way back into form. For his part, Dujon has backed the player to figure things out sooner, rather than later.
“There’s no question in my mind that he is the best batsman that we have,” Dujon told the Mason and Guest radio program.
“Technically he is very good, from the very first time I saw him, I thought he was very good and talking to him and getting to know him, I know he is smart enough to work it out when things aren’t going right,” he added.
“He might have gotten his technique a little bit mixed up because of the competitions he was playing in, but I don’t see that lasting very long because he has quality. You don’t go to England and be immortal and not be able to bat.”
Hope grabbed headlines around the world in 2017, becoming the first batsman to score twin hundreds in a match at Headingly in first-class cricket.
Spin twins Shakib, Mehidy have been too much for Windies admits skipper Mohammed
West Indies stand-captain, Jason Mohammed, admits the team’s inability to cope with top-class spinners has been the primary reason it has been unable to post higher totals.
Batting first in both ODIs played to date, being inserted to bat in the first and choosing to bat first in the second, the regional team fell below 150 runs on both occasions. The stifling spin bowling of Mehidy Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan proved to be a major contributing factor in keeping the West Indies batsmen in straitjackets on both occasions.
Al Hasan claimed a jaw-dropping 4 for 8 runs in the first ODI, with an extraordinary miserly economy rate of 1.09 as the West Indies were restricted to 122. In the second, it was Mehidy who applied the restraints, claiming 4 for 25 with an economy rate of 2.59. The West Indies were restricted to 148 before Bangladesh easily chased down the target.
“They are two quality spinners, especially Shakib, one of the best in the world and Mehidy has been playing very well for Bangladesh as well,” Mohammed said of facing off against the pair.
“They have been good, and we haven’t been able to manage them, that’s why we have been getting those low totals.”
Rovman Powell was the team’s top scorer with 41 in the second ODI, while Kyle Mayers led the way with 40 in the first ODI. The West Indies and Bangladesh will face off for the final ODI on Monday at 12:30 am.
West Indies lose again as Bangladesh win series 2-0
Bangladesh took an unassailable 2-0 lead following their seven-wicket win over West Indies in Dhaka this morning.
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